Pardon me as I try to get back in to the swing of things.
You may remember a couple of weeks ago I did a review for a film called the Video Dead. Scream Factory released a two pack blu ray set with The Video Dead and Terrorvision. I have mentioned many times that Terrorvision is one of the movies that actually scared me when I was younger. I am going to go ahead and blame the high fever I had back then, I actually had a nightmare and woke up thinking the monster from Terrorvision was in my bed with me. It turns out the monster was my G.I. Joe sleeping bag.
That was the first and last time I saw Terrorvision. So, the question is, should I give Terrorvision another chance?
Ok, ha, I sure will. It is like facing my fears all over again.
Terrorvision is kind of a ridiculous film. Before anything else, we get a lengthy opening credits with the Terrorvision them song. It is a theme that gets stuck in your head, for days. The movie begins on the planet Pluton, the sanitation department. An alien mutant called the hungry beast gets beamed to Earth. We then meet the Puttermans, Stanley is setting the satellite dish, while is wife is doing aerobics in the living room. We meet the grandfather, their son and the daughter. This was surprising to me, Diane Franklin plays the daughter, Suzy. I love Diane Franklin. She was in Amityville II the Possession and Better off Dead. The family is a bit strange, the parents are swingers, the grandfather is overly military with the son and their daughter is a punk rocker with a boyfriend named OD.
So, the Hungry Beast comes through the satellite dish and goes after the family. First it gets the grandpa in a gory and yet silly scene where he eats the grandpa and then gets sucked into the tv again. Sherman, the son saw everything and hides out in the grandpa’s bunker. His parents come back with guests and want to entertain them in the “pleasure dome”, they are swingers after all. Of course, the fun really begins to pick up from there. We find out that the Hungry Beast can replicate people and uses this to lure other victims. There are a couple of memorable scenes that stuck with me over the years. When the Hungry Beast replicates the parents and their friends and they are all in bed. They ask about grandpa and he pops out of the blanket and says he is “just taking care of business”. This is so awesome, the end of the film with Medusa, I don’t even know what to say. At one point the Suzy and OD try to teach the Hungry Beast, how to eat and listen to music and even talk, yep…
Terrorvision is pretty ridiculous, but it is a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a silly 1980s horror comedy, this should shoot to the top of the list. Watch it with a bunch of friends and enjoy. It is so over the top, it is not scary at all. My kids watched Terrorvision with me and loved it very much. I was 10 when I first saw the movie in 1990, at that point I had seen five Nightmare films, a bunch of Friday the 13th and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Why did Terrorvision scare me? I still blame the high fever. Terrorvision is so bad, its good.
The theme song is performed by The Fibonaccis and it is wonderful.
John Carl Buechler is responsible for the Hungry Beast, well he was the effects supervisor on the film.
Diane Frankin calls Sherman a “butt hole”.
IMDB.com has a rating of 5.7
Rotten Tomatoes has a 0%, wow!
I will give Terrorvision a 5.5 overall, it is a fun, silly 1980s horror comedy that is only 83 minutes long.
Check out the trailer.
